Tim Russert asked John McCain this morning: We send kids to boot camp and send them to Iraq to fight. Why can’t we do the same with Iraqi kids?
McCain’s answer was good – he noted that Iraqi kids are indeed being trained and sent out to fight and are doing better and better — but he left this out: We send kids to West Point for four years – and we graduate them as lieutenants, not generals.
The problem with Iraqi forces — as was explained me at CENTCOM (Central Command) recently — is not training troops who can acquire a target and fire a rifle. The problem is training a new generation of military leaders with the skills and judgment people in the U.S. military take decades to develop.